“He’s fine, Lee.” I kept my aim level with his chest. “It was a tranquilizer dart. He’s just going to take a little nap.”
“Who the hell is that out there, and don’t try to tell me that it’s Quinn because I know it’s not,” Lee said, proving his senses were better than any of us suspected. I always thought he had the look of an alpha but this proved it. Not even Daniel had been able to sense the difference between Dev and his twin.
“It’s his twin brother, Declan,” I explained, not quite able to keep the vindication from my voice. “I’m sorry for having to take Zack out, but it was necessary. He can be entirely unreasonable. The boys told you about last night?”
Lee nodded. He still had his gun trained on me. It was a nice little standoff. “I take it they were wrong. I thought we should check into it, but this is Zack’s gig. I let him make the decisions. So the twin was there last night.”
“Yep. We’re going to hunt down the thing that tried to kill me. I would prefer if you came with us but understand this, Lee, this is my mission and I won’t be bossed around.”
He sighed. “Zoey, that’s not…”
The minute I heard the negative, I shot him. I had a distinct advantage on him and I used it. He didn’t want to harm me. It made him slow to act. Like his brother, he went down, though his eyes stayed open longer. I leaned over him. He was in a really uncomfortable position. If I left him like that, he would be sore and while I had no problem with Zack having back spasms for days, I would feel bad about Lee. He was just trying to look out for his brother. I kicked the gun out of his hand and helped him down to a more suitable position to lie unconscious in for several hours.
“Zoey.” Lee managed to speak even as his eyes were getting heavy. He should have been out, but he fought it. “Don’t get yourself killed.”
“I promise. I’ll bring you back a head or something, Lee. You’ll wish you had gone with me.”
“I probably will, you crazy bitch,” he said with a smile as the drug finally took effect.
“Night, night, Lee.”
I stood up and looked around my own little candy store. I would love to have been able to take one of those cool looking P90s, but they were really hard to conceal under a skirt. I would have to rely on handguns and knives. I could probably fit a couple of grenades and flashbangs in my really big bag. Kelly had sworn it was the handbag of the season. At the time it seemed like a bit much for a girl who only carried a wallet, a cell, and some lip gloss, but now I saw the advantages.
“You took out the wolves.” Declan stepped gingerly over my now defunct bodyguards.
“I told you I would.” I steadied my foot on a shelf and hiked my skirt up to mid-thigh. I efficiently strapped on the leather piece designed to hold knives. I selected two, turning them slowly in my hands to test their weight before securing them against my leg.
“I admit I was skeptical.” Declan carefully watched every move I made. He frowned when I smoothed the skirt down. Looking around the room, his eyes widened as he took in the weaponry. “Why does my brother need such an armory? You said this was a club. If I know my brother, he declared it a place of peace. He never did like to take sides, or rather he never liked to appear to take sides.”
I shrugged as I placed the Ruger in my bag. I would have preferred to have it in a handy holster, but it was summer in Texas. I was wearing a skirt and one of those recently outlawed tank tops. I could conceal the knives but not the bulky gun. “He sometimes has security problems. Even a place of peace has to have a security team.”
My logic was sound even as I lied through my teeth. Since Dev had thrown his lot in with me and Daniel, the armory had grown exponentially.
“This is not for simple security. Someone is planning a war. What has my brother gotten himself into this time?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, unwilling to get into that argument. “I’m just a soft, sweet girl. He wouldn’t tell his little mistress about his plans. Now drop the glamour.”
“What?”
I gestured up and down at his perfect facsimile of Dev. “I’m talking about the glamour you’re using to look exactly like your brother. You’ve been apart for a long time. I seriously doubt you tracked down his hair stylist and asked for ‘the Dev.’ You were watching us the other night and you copied him. I want to see the real you.”
The prince nodded and dropped his perfect glamour. I gasped at the quick change. His hold on the magic was damn near perfect. I saw the real Declan for the first time and couldn’t help but stare. Declan still looked exactly like Dev with a major exception. His hair was really long. It created a midnight black waterfall around his handsome face. It reached halfway down his back. It strangely didn’t make him look feminine. It made him look slightly savage, as did the gold circlet that sat on his head. In the center of his forehead was the same sun symbol that adorned my necklace.
“When did Dev cut his hair?” I made no effort to hide my fascination. Even in the awful florescent light, Declan’s hair shone. I found myself thinking about what Dev would look like with all that hair. It would cover me like a blanket when he laid on top of me. I would get tangled in it when we cuddled together. It was so black it almost looked blue.
“He used a knife to butcher it before he left the sithein.” Declan lowered his head silently, giving his assent for me to touch him. I let my fingers run through the thick, silky fall of his hair. It was truly his crowning glory. “It was then I knew he meant to leave.”
“You’re beautiful, Declan,” I said because he was and it was polite in Fae society to compliment someone on their looks. “Your hair is the sexiest thing I’ve seen in a long time.”
He gave me an arrogant grin, bowing slightly. “Thank you, Zoey. And I think your breasts are completely succulent. If I had found myself with more time the other night when I shot the undead creature, I had planned on getting them in my mouth.”
“Nice,” I replied with a shake of my head because faeries were also big on the over sharing. “How many guns do you want? I always try to carry at least two.”
He shook his head. “I do not carry such weapons. They are not honorable.”
He turned and showed me that he wore a long, ornate bow on his back along with a quiver containing arrows—a traditional Fae weapon. It was also pretty much crap in the urban field. A longbow worked well when you had the high ground against an army, but I preferred bullets. They were quick, did their job, and I didn’t have to notch one every time I needed to fire. There were other reasons I didn’t like the bow as a weapon.
“You know what’s not honorable? Shooting a hostage in the belly with an arrow. It hurts like hell going in and that is nothing compared to the way the sucker feels when you have to shove it out through the back. I’ll take a bullet wound any day of the week. That weapon there isn’t honorable. It’s barbaric.”
“You have had this happen to you?”
“Oh, yeah,” I assured him. “Just ask your brother about it. He was tied up at the time, but I’m sure he remembers the experience. He was quite impressed that I managed to shove the whole arrow out the back and I only passed out once.” To be honest, I was pretty hopped up on vamp blood at the time or I would have been dead, but I didn’t need to tell Declan that. I suddenly remembered we were alone, and I had some unfinished business to take care of. “Declan, this is for Dev.”
I hauled my fist back and put every bit of strength I had into breaking his nose.
The Gaelic started flying, and I suspected it was not a flurry of polite words. There was an odd rush of energy against my skin, and I suddenly found myself shoved against a row of shelves with a knife at my throat. I was held firmly in place by a large male with long white hair who had not been in the room thirty seconds before. Declan had been serious about the fact that I couldn’t see his guard. The new guy’s pale eyes told me he would slit my throat in an instant and probably enjoy the experience. So this was what passed for a bodyguard in the Fae world. I was suddenly glad for Zack.